Very rough draft.

Chapter One

Arrival

This was no ordinary vacation spot, and rightfully so, it was built to accommodate people who were generally atypical. This was a place that the whole family could enjoy, and if things went smoothly here these would be popping up in chains across the country within months. My aunt had chosen this place in particular not for the exclusive advertising or illustrious entourage of people that would flock, but rather for the programs and activities it had to offer. I hadnt even known about it until she called and only chose to join her to work on my thesis and because some of my friends would be vacationing here as well. Upon our arrival I hadnt much prior knowledge of what would be here. I knew my aunt came because it supported programs such as painting, art classes, a gymnastics, swimming, all things the kids would enjoy, along with the biochemistry projects, the reason my aunt came in the first place. When we arrived, the outside didnt look much different from any other hotel or resort, maybe a little bit larger but no significant difference. Once inside we saw the vastness of what it had to offer, huge dining rooms, pools, beverage counters, galas, show rooms, a small casino like area(since gambling is illegal in Florida they dont use real money, but you can get prizes), and lots of other scheduled activities, the activities being the biggest reason people came. Knowing my aunt and the kids would be busy most of the time excited me because that meant I could spend more time fraternizing. I hadnt come for the activities, and most of my friends were also going to be here this week, so I starting scouring the room for friendly face. I almost instantly spotted my close friend Joey and went over to greet him. I started asking him where he was going to be spending the evening but he said he hadnt really thought about it. My aunt walked over to the counter to check us in, the bag boy took my luggage and I knew I was going to love this place, especially with me being the one that was being served for a change. I asked Joey if had noticed how great the little town was on the way in and he agreed,"This is probably just the type of thing they need to build the economy" he said. I agreed. "We should go get a drink somewhere and get familiar, well probably be here awhile"I suggested. He agreed, "Let me put my stuff away and grab something, Ill be right down," he said and took off down a corridor. "Sure thing" I said back, he turned around,"Keep your eye out for other attendees"he said. " No problem" I said and walked over to my aunt. "Who was that" she said, being that my aunt was actually from Maine she hadnt met any of my friends before. "Oh, youve heard me talk about Joey before weve been friends since we were kids" I responded. "I dont recall" she said,"but he is handsome"she winked. "I didnt even know he was going to be here. We don talk much since he started going out -of-state." What are you kids getting into tonight?"she asked "Not much, probably go find something to eat and check out the college." "Dont stray too far, I dont want you getting lost." "I wont get lost thats what Im here for "I explained. When I found out she would be spending almost her whole summer here I agreed to help her settle in the unfamiliar surroundings of central Florida. "Things can get tricky being so close to Disney World if your not familiar with that type of industry", I joked with her. Well were going to the room to get the girls ready for super, and Ill see you when?" she asked "Probably in the morning" I responded. "I thought you two were just friends" she chuckled. I laughed and she kissed me on the cheek,"heres a room key and the number to the hotel, call me if anything goes wrong, an attendant will give you directions if you get lost." she said "Thanks", I responded and kissed her back.
Standing around waiting for Joey opened a window of opportunity, I already spotted the cute guys working the counter and needed directions, on top of that I could keep an eye for others that were arriving. I walked over to the counter and asked the guys if there were any cool spots to grab a beer in town, they werent helpful though they just referred me to some of the beverage counters inside, he said "theres not much in the town but the college, where I will personally be graduating from after this fall term," he responded to the other clerk, "a couple of mom & pops, and a small bar about 10 miles down the road." "Other than that theres mostly old houses and neighborhoods"." If you need anything Im sure that you can find it here though" he responded. "No Im fine, I just dont like confinement."I explained. "I cant argue there" he said."But do be careful on these back roads the police will get you, theyre always patrolling to catch the college kids who try to race at night." " He only works here to pay off the tickets from that" the other clerk said and started pointing at the other guy and laughing,"hell its not like you got away, would you like a fresh towel with that Mrs. Daisy" he chuckled. " I couldnt help but laugh " I said to the other clerk. Now more people were arriving and I noticed my friends Davie and Chris, "Hey I didnt know you guys were going to be here," "and neither did we you" they gave me a sort high-class cheek to cheek "smooch" " I already saw Joey, were going to check out the town." "Well call the room if you find something" " I will". I heard Joeys voice down the hall and started towards the door waved at the desk clerks they waved back"Be careful" one of them winked. "Oh he is too gorgeous" I started telling Joey as we walked to the car "You want me to hook you up, I know I can, hook you up" he started poking at my sides. "Dont poke me there I hate it when you poke" I started tickling him, we started to scuffle I wiggled they keys from his hand and he started running after me. I got to the car ran to the other side and paused for a second he started running over and I threw the keys under the car to the ground. We both looked at each other and with equal opportunity for one to successfully obtain the keys form the other both made a mad dash to the other side of the car. "Whoever gets the keys gets to drive," we both of course reached for the keys at the same time and like a couple of kids in the sand box after preschool daycare fell to the ground and started struggling again with one another. Joey grabbed my head and started to noggie the keys away rubbing the top of my head back and forth until I got a hand free and I started tickling him again, Joeys infamous weak spot. He couldnt resist and like a tired cub slouched to one side and gave in to his fit of laughter. We went on this way for a couple of minutes, sitting on the ground of an adult resort laughing like a couple of wild dogs, when someone started pulling in. We decided to shuffle to our feet and I decide
d it would be best if I drove under Joeys condition. "My condition" he said, "and that would be?" " Joey , my man, you cant even jiggle keys away from a girl" I laughed and started running around the car again."How about your condition thinking the desk clerk was cute. He couldnt even get a date with medusa!" Now I told you that jealous behavior isnt going to get you that PHD at Harvard" Seriously though, Ill drive, the seriously unattractive desk clerk gave me the directions, so I nominate me to direct!"All in favor step on Joeys toes, just kidding". "So do you think we should stop to get a picture of these houses, I mean this is the most unique architecture Ive ever seen. I would bet some of these houses date back to the late 1800's?" "Yeah, I know and there all still in perfect condition, you can tell they really tried to preserve their originality here." "Im sure they all think it as wonderful as we do, lets turn down here and see if we can get a close up." We became so enthralled with the houses we drove around until well past nightfall and kept talking about them and how we thought life was when they were originally built we loved the ideas of the British settler that probably originally invested their time in the creation of this amazingly almost like new, re-vamped site. "I would bet these people originally intended to cover the whole Appalachian countryside with these houses. If so I wouldnt blame them"As we were started approaching the end of a cul-de-sac we noticed a house that was dramatically different from the others. The roof was collapsed on one side and it was practically condemned. "Hey Joey, look at that one." Dont you think its odd that its all the way down here and completely run down when none of the others look this way?""Even stranger is that iridescent glow coming from inside." "Yeah, it looks like a black light." I said "Lets get a closer look". We pulled in front and parked. "Lets get out and take a picture. Im sure noone lives here." " I think it will make a great scene, the collapsed roof with the night backdrop." These houses were truly like nothing I had ever seen, they had a gothic sort of colonial theme, with high tipped roofs, almost like steeples. They were all massive in size but were built up rather than out. Most of them over 3 stories and no one house resembled another, other than the unique shape. The people who built the first most have impressed the rest because there were well over a thousand still in tact and all preserved in their originality. But this one, completely condemned it looked like it had been for awhile. "Lets walk around to this side. I think well get the best angle with the moon in the back round." As we approached I noticed the door half open and could smell something from inside not a bad smell it was actually familiar, reminded me of an Indian scent that people often use in meditation rituals, nag champa. As we got even closer I could make out a faint noise, almost like tribal transcendental music with modern additions and peoples voices. Joey looked over at me,"Should we see whats going on inside." "I dont know maybe we should walk up on the porch and see if we can see anything from there, the people probably own the house. Should we leave?" "I dont know. Ill make something up like, I think Im lost do you have a phone, and knock."Before we even ascended the first stair someone came out to greet us. "Finally visitors"she exclaimed. Joey and I were puzzled."Please, come inside." Were really very sorry." I started to explain. "We were driving around looking at these magnificent houses." " They are wonderful arent they." she said "Yes, gorgeous." "And we were wondering if we could go around back and get a picture." "Of course but first you must come inside to meet the other guest to have a drink."" Well actually," Joey began to explain," We were staying at the resort up the road and went out for a drink or to find a place to hang out when we decided to get some pictures of the houses, and didnt mean to intrude but my friend has thing for 18^th century gothic and black and white photography. So she wanted a picture of your house for her thesis." Most of which was made up."So we didnt mean to bother you." "No worries" she said. We looked at each other puzzled. "I wonder what she means" I said to Joey as we followed her inside.
The girl was around our age, probably a student attending the college. Roughly 5'10,long straight brown hair, blue eyes, extremely milky white skin, extremely thin, with a straight narrow nose. She wore mostly black clothes that looked like they could have been made in the same century that the houses were built, she wore a long smock with embroidery up the front in purple velvet, a hippie with and sort of gothic-vampiric style. When we got inside most of the thirty or forty people with in looked about the same, gothic sort of vampirial styling with brown or black hair, all sitting in different groups usually in numbers of three or four mostly keeping to their own groups. We noticed that the people liked to move around a lot but usually just one from a group would go join another and then someone would follow behind in their place, keeping a nice cycle going through out the room. Spider webs hung from the ceiling and instead of removing them someone actually took the time to label them with individually hanging signs all with different quotations, "beware of spider" or "Ive come to suck your blood", and some didnt say anything just had pictures of spiders with smiley faces or strange symbols with glitter trimmings. I had never seen anything like the decor with in either, velvet draped over every wall. Even the window boxes had been lined by one piece velvet clothe gathered to a point at the top of the window and cascading down with in the box and then on to the floor. One piece of un tailored velvet over another until the entire interior of the house was literally covered in it. There were people sitting on top of the velvet in the window boxes as well, three or four people could fit inside easily since the windows were so large to accommodate the obesity of the house. The front area was huge like in most houses of its era and was probably used mostly for entertaining. "So whos house is this" I asked the girl but she didnt hear me. Joey leaned over to her, "Are you the one orchestrating this shindig?" "Yes sir and you are more than welcome to a beverage." "So, you guys say you just stumbled upon us while driving around? Arent you the lucky ones"she smiled a sly little grin and winked "Yeah" Joey responded "We understand if want us to go, we just dont want any trouble." "No worries" she repeated. "Please, come in meet people, have a drink, take a look upstairs as well, I think you find it to your liking. I have to go tend to somethings, meet me back here in a little less than an hour. Then I will show you whats next." "Whats next?" I asked Joey. "Ok" he called back. "Free beer" Joey looked at me"lets just stay here for a few more minutes, Im sure these sorority chicks found this old house and thought they should christen it."he chuckled "Can we stay here long enough to see what shes talking about?" I asked him. "Sure, let me go lock the car." When Joey left I started to check out the house and see what sort of people were there, and what they were doing. Whomever set this up went to great lengths. And I could tell these people werent your usually sorority girls most sorority girls wouldnt be caught dead in place like this. They had all kinds of gadgets I had never seen and the layout was very unusual. The people had five or six mobile wet bars each with its own attendant and two or three people standing around. You could tell the people in this town really appreciated their individuality and seemed like a friendly bunch. In the middle of the room was a huge oak coffee table, it was probably in the house when they found it. Around the coffee table were nine or ten people all with flat hand held computers and all of them seemed to be linked to an interwoven network. The way they were conversing was very unusual, you would see one of them working on something, and the one next to them would be waiting to receive a message usually while working on something themselves. From what I could tell a message mostly consisted of colors, shapes, and abstract graphics with a couple of messages that would pop in during a streaming of sequences. Once one was finished almost immediately it would stop someone elses computer and transfer over then that person, the one being intercepted would watch and wait until it was done. Once the message was received they would send back a counteracting message, usually it would say thank you and add in modifications to the graphics from the previous message, distorting it a little or changing colors, writing in colorful phrasing or uplifting paraphrases seemed to be popular among them. Immediately after they completed a message they would be put back on whatever they were working on. The graphics on their computers displayed they were not much like anything I had seen before. I thought I would go chat with them awhile while I waited for Joey. I walked over to one of them and started looking on to his screen, he looked up, paused a second," Hey" he said, he was very handsome "I saw you watching over there, you can look on with me if you like." " where did your friend run off to?" " Oh he had to lock the car", Sorry, I just realized how rude I am leaning over you like this, I was just standing over there waiting for him to return and thought I might come over to get a better view." Ive never seen graphics like this before." "Do you like it?"he asked " The network I mean, I invented it myself." " Well I actually invented this," he showed me a splicer, almost like the ones people use for stealing cable. " With this I can link people via internet and noone can ever trace me." "Really" I exclaimed. " thats really revolutionary." " I dont know about that he said. If we were ever capable of starting a real revolution someone would probably shut me down before we succeeded and once we made for the public Im sure people would find ways of tracing it." " So far though somehow I have managed to stay untraceable." " So is this just something you do to show girls at parties or are you some kind of drug lord using to smuggle drugs from Columbia?" I said and he started laughing. "Actually" he started to explain, " With this network I can keep in contact with people all over the world just like you can on the internet." " The people at this party are members of a nomadic "community" we call the Obloxigenaries or for short The Oblox." We keep in contact through the network and help each other find one another. Since were nomadic, we find sites like this one and fix them up. We usually stay awhile, until we are done or have found a new party to travel with. Then we just move on." We stay in touch with and recognize each other through our faith." I was a little puzzled by these statements so I its always in my nature to clarify. "So you guys travel around living in houses you dont own and when your done you just go out and find a new one." No t entirely true" he added "We mostly live with the others that we meet at functions like these. For example, I arrived here at three oclock today and most of what you see had been already finished, as far as the drapes, candles, little flower arrangements, spider trinkets, goblets, a few other things. Mileako is the type of host that keeps things to herself, and as do most people of the Cantro-Ex-Harma Oblox its against their pledge to do so, for instance I may never know where she just came from, and Im also obliged to never ask. When I got here only a few people had arrived. Most of these people arent stationary yet, and most of them will never be, it would be against their faith. I for one am not a stationary Oblox. People ask me if I think of converting and I respond with an over dramatic, Never! So people come to events like these to find other Oblox to travel with. The job of an Oblox is to spread their faith and to share in the faiths of the others to achieve what can be explained as "full enlightenment." I have only come here seeking refuge because once again I have stirred up trouble in the Nether region, my native home land, and was banned for several months until I can get there system running properly again." "Uh-huh, so this is basically a cult?" I asked "Not exactly, we dont like the indirect harshness thats associated with a word like cult, so we refer to it as a new religion. The way we see it is why because man starts to calculate time should he have to conform to an old religion? It wouldnt make sense for me to be born and not have the authority to disagree with someone 3,000 times my elder. " Looking at him stunned I conveyed no body language to him at all and sort of remained stifled in our conversation. To be quite honest I think I may have been a little scared. At that time he informed me that my friend had returned. "Please" he implored "stop back by before you leave I want to show you something."I agreed but wasnt sure that I would stay much longer. I walked over to Joey he was walking in with a group of people with whom he had been conversing with outside. " So, he said what did you hear so far." "I dont think I could begin to explain." I said back to him. "Do you still want to stay." he asked " To be honest Im still curious about whats upstairs."I said "Me too." So we agreed to go up and check it out.

Part 2, Chapter 1: Upstairs

As we ascended the stair case it was quite a magnificent sight. Through the hole in the roof shone the moonlight in a bright yellow glow, it was more than marvelous. You could see the whole sky, it was breath taking I almost slipped on the stairs because I couldnt take my eyes of the sky. "Its really wonderful" I looked over to Joey finally to find his mouth completely agape as well, "it really is" he responded in a sort of low monotone voice with a hint of complete wonderment. When we got to the top of the stairs it was more like being on the roof than on the second floor of a house, the ceiling looked almost too perfectly decomposed to match the setting of the rest of the house, and to be honest the rest of the evening up until now. "So who did you meet outside? Any hot sorority chicas?" "Haha. No but I did meet very interesting people though have you noticed how nice they all are?" "Im starting to think you might be becoming a little smitten with these people" I grinned at Joey to poke fun, he never really liked "eccentrics", especially at this degree though. He seemed oddly taken by them, and I say oddly in an overly fitting context in this situation. "I dont know I think maybe they could grow on me, they seem to have a good ora. Something about them makes me feel excited." I looked at him with my mouth open, "you can get excited!" I cheesed him a flashy grin and chuckled. "And by people none the less. Im in shock." he stuck out his tongue at me. Suddenly we noticed something in the shadows and just then we saw a lighter lite and could see that there were people all over in the shadows that we hadnt even noticed for the last five or ten minutes. We got quiet and still, the people seemed to not even notice us though and just kept on talking and joking, some were just staring up at the sky. The tension quickly faded between Joey and I so we got back into our conversation. "So does it seem to be getting closer to us and bigger even" he pointed to the moon. "You know I was just going to say the same thing to you" "Very interesting" he responded in an almost Freud inspired tone. " not just the moon though" I went on" its almost like the whole sky is getting closer to us. And its almost hypnotic like no one can stop staring at it and its making feel so tranquil and at peace, its entirely consuming my every whim" "I know I feel like Im in a complete state of euphoria" I started to take notice of the situation, it was striking me as odd that Joey and I were sharing these kinds of feelings with one another, or I guess just in this situation. "So are we really going to stick around for, whatever next she was referring to?" I asked. " well the way I see it," he said. " This could go either way, I didnt here you leaning one way or the other and considering you didnt even take your eyes off the sky and neither can I . It would be safe to assume that we will most likely both want to see the whats next she was speaking of." "So what should we do until then" I agreed, we should probably stay to check it out. There was some kind of energy in the air there was something else going on here, and even though when I really thought about the whole situation I mean, we didnt even know these people, we hadnt been invited until we showed up on the porch, the woman who let us in seemed certain we had been invited when we hadnt, but we still just went right in like it was nothing. We hadnt even wanted to see the inside of the house but now we were with friendly unfamiliar faces surrounding us and looking at this beautiful portrait that the sky was painting right before our eyes with the moon and a endless sea of twinkling stars for our delight, and the harder we gazed the more drawn in we would become, it was extremely out of the ordinary thing, in fact nothing like this had ever occurred before in my life and took me for being the most out of the ordinary thing I had ever done to be exact. I was still none the less completely enthralled by the entire situation. I found myself not wanting to leave. I felt like I belonged here and this happened for a reason. Then suddenly I realized what I said to the man I spoke with downstairs. I exclaimed right to him "Uh-huh, so this is a cult." In those exact words, and I became frightened for a minute. I realized that I felt exactly like I was being sucked in by mind controlling people and that must be why I was feeling thee feelings of euphoria. Had I been drugged by them? I hoped not, but I didnt feel the side effects of drugs, just maybe like I was hallucinating a little. Then I realized that I could probably control myself long enough to at least see the illusive "whats next" to which we had all referred to.